1.
What questions do you have about
Race and Racism?

2.
Explain the role of Egocentrism and
Sociocentrism in Racism.

3.
How does the Hasty Generalization
fallacy reinforce racist thinking?
Give an example.

4.
Has the idea of race always been
with us? Explain your answer.

5.
Why does human skin color tend
to be dark near the equator and
light near the poles? Explain your
answer.

6.
What does a person’s skin color
suggest about their overall
personality and/or intelligence?
Explain your answer.

7.
Define Racism. What is Institutional
Racism?

8.
What questions do you have about
Race and Racism?

9.
First… some background

10.
Race
Racism

11.
Questions we hope to address:
• What is race?
• What is racism?
• Why is race / racism such a hot button topic in
our country?
• What can I do?

12.
Important things to understand
about yourself and others.
Keep in mind…

13.
How can this happen?

14.
Your brain is very good at Pattern-
Recognition
What does this mean?
Keep in mind…

15.
Background

16.
Background

17.
Background

18.
Background

19.
Background

20.
Background

21.
Background

22.
1. Your brain is very good at Pattern-
Recognition
• During human evolution, the brains pattern processing
became increasingly sophisticated, especially the
prefrontal cortex and other regions of the brain
involved in processing of images.
• Specific patterns, real or imagined, are reinforced by
academic, social, emotional experiences, to develop
“cognitive maps” of reality.
Keep in mind…

23.
We are all:
2. Egocentric: We tend to see the world
from a narrow, self serving perspective
3. Sociocentric: We tend to see our own
group as superior to others
But what can go wrong?
Keep in mind…

24.
What can go wrong?
mistakes in our thinking – misinterpreting patterns
4. Argument from ignorance: a specific belief is
true because we don’t know that it isn’t true.
5. Post-hoc ergo propter hoc: A preceded B,
therefore A caused B.
6. Hasty generalization: drawing a conclusion
about a large population based on a small
sample.
Keep in mind…
Logical Fallacies:

25.
Questions we hope to address:
• What is race?
• What is racism?
• Why is race / racism such a hot button topic in
our country?
• What can I do?

26.
Things CHANGE over TIME
To understand race, you must first understand human evolution
What is race?

27.
• The Earth is really, really, really, really,
really, really, OLD.
What is race?

28.
• Evolution occurs when there is change in the genetic material
-- DNA -- which is inherited from the parents.
The process of evolution (in a nutshell)
What is race?

29.
• Parents pass genetic changes to their offspring that can give
offspring advantages in certain environments.
The process of evolution (in a nutshell)
What is race?

30.
The process of evolution (in a nutshell)
• Offspring inherit genetic characteristics that increase their
chances of survival and their ability to give birth, and then
they pass on that specific trait.
What is race?

31.
So… The process of evolution involves a series of natural changes,
over long stretches of time, that help organisms adapt to the
environment.
• Evolution occurs when there is change in the genetic material
-- DNA -- which is inherited from the parents.
• Parents pass genetic changes to their offspring that can give
offspring advantages in certain environments.
The process of evolution (in a nutshell)
• Offspring inherit genetic characteristics that increase their
chances of survival and their ability to give birth, and then
they pass on that specific trait.
What is race?

32.
The process of evolution (in a nutshell)
What is race?

33.
Our modern ideas about Race are relatively recent.
Ancient societies, like the Greeks, did not divide
people according to physical distinctions, but
according to religion, status, class, even language.
The English language didn’t even have the word
‘race’ until it turns up in 1508 in a poem by William
Dunbar referring to a line of kings.
What is race?

34.
In the 18th century, Carl
Linnaeus published a system
for classifying living things,
which has been developed
into the modern classification
system.
Linnaeus was the first scientist
to develop a hierarchal naming
structure for life on Earth that
conveyed information both
about what the species was (its
name) and its closest relatives.
What is race?

35.
Question
If we classify Animals, why shouldn’t we classify
ourselves?
And since European scientists are doing the
classifying, they become at the top of the
system.
What is race?

36.
Carl Linnaeus human categories
Homo
sapiens
H. americanus H. europaeus H. africanus H. asiaticus
He also included the categories:
• H. monstrosus (included many “exotic” peoples)
• H. ferus (“wild man”), based on travelers’ myths.

37.
What is Race?
Race is the idea that the human can be divided
into distinct groups based on inherited physical
and behavioral differences.
Race is understood by most people as a mixture of
physical, behavioral and cultural attributes.
Ethnicity recognizes differences between people mostly
based on language and shared culture.
What is race?

38.
Why do we look different?

39.
Why do we look like we do?

40.
Human v % in common
Human 99.95+%
Chimpanzee 98.5%
Cat 90%
Cow 80%
Mouse 75%
Fruit-Fly 50%
Banana 30%
Percentage of Genes in Common

41.
Race has no genetic basis.
There is no “Race” gene. Not one characteristic, trait or
even one gene distinguishes all the members of one so-
called race from all the members of another so-called
race.
WE (humans) decide how we sort each other!

42.
Species
Lived when
(Ma)
Lived where Adult height Adult mass Discovery
Denisova hominin 0.04 Altai Krai 2010
H. antecessor 1.2 – 0.8 Spain 1.75 m (5.7 ft) 90 kg (200 lb) 1997
H. cepranensis 0.5 – 0.35 Italy 1994/2003
H. erectus 1.8 – 0.2
Africa, Eurasia
(Java, China, India,
Caucasus)
1.8 m (5.9 ft) 60 kg (130 lb) 1891/1892
H. ergaster 1.9 – 1.4
Eastern and
Southern Africa
1.9 m (6.2 ft) 1975
H. floresiensis 0.10 – 0.012 Indonesia 1.0 m (3.3 ft) 25 kg (55 lb) 2003/2004
H. gautengensis >2 – 0.6 South Africa 1.0 m (3.3 ft) 2010/2010
H. habilis 2.3 – 1.4 Africa
1.0–1.5 m (3.3–
4.9 ft)
33–55 kg (73–120 lb) 1960/1964
H. heidelbergensis 0.6 – 0.35
Europe, Africa,
China
1.8 m (5.9 ft) 90 kg (200 lb) 1908
H. neanderthalensis 0.35 – 0.03
Europe, Western
Asia
1.6 m (5.2 ft)
55–70 kg (120–150 lb)
(heavily built)
(1829)/1864
H. rhodesiensis 0.3 – 0.12 Zambia 1921
H. rudolfensis 1.9 Kenya 1972/1986
H. sapiens idaltu 0.16 – 0.15 Ethiopia 1997/2003
H. sapiens sapiens (modern
humans)
0.2 – present Worldwide
1.4–1.9 m (4.6–
6.2 ft)
50–100 kg (110–220 lb) —/1758
Comparative table of Homo species

43.
Human evolutionary history based on fossil data

44.
We are ALL one species. Human subspecies don’t
exist.
Unlike many animals, modern humans simply
haven’t been around long enough or isolated
enough to evolve into separate subspecies or
races.
Despite surface appearances, we are one of the
most similar of all species.

45.
Skin Color
• As early humans moved into hot, open
environments in search of food and water
• The adaptation that was favored involved an
increase in the number of sweat glands on the
skin while at the same time reducing the
amount of body hair (with less hair,
perspiration could evaporate more easily and
cool the body more efficiently).

46.
Skin Color
• Less-hairy skin = increased sun exposure
which damages the body.
• Darker skin has advantage because the
melanin absorbs harmful UV light.
BUT
• Peoples that migrated to colder geographic
zones with less sunlight developed lighter
skin color.

47.
*Skin Color*
• Over time, as people moved to areas farther
from the equator with lower UV levels, natural
selection favored lighter skin which allowed UV
rays to penetrate and produce essential
vitamin D.
• Too much UV strips the body of Folate (Vitamin
B). So darker skin gave people who lived closer
to the equator an advantage by preventing
folate deficiency (+ increased cancer).

48.
What you look like
What it means

49.
Skin color really is only skin deep.
Most traits are inherited independently from one
another. The genes influencing skin color have
nothing to do with the genes influencing hair, eye
shape, blood type, musical talent, athletic ability or
forms of intelligence.
Knowing someone’s skin color doesn’t necessarily
tell you anything else about him or her.

50.
Most variation is within, not between, "races."
Of the small amount of total human variation, 85%
exists within any local population, be they Italians,
Kurds, Koreans or Cherokees.
About 94% can be found within any continent. That
means two random Koreans may be as genetically
different as a Korean and an Italian.

51.
Individuals vary | Populations vary

52.
Slavery predates race.
Throughout much of human
history, societies have
enslaved others, often as a
result of conquest or war,
even debt, but not because of
physical characteristics or a
belief in natural inferiority.
Due to a unique set of historical circumstances, ours was
the first slave system where all the slaves shared similar
physical characteristics.

53.
The U.S. was founded on
the radical new principle
that "All men are created
equal." But our early
economy was based
largely on slavery.
How could this contradiction be rationalized?
The new idea of race helped explain why some people
could be denied the rights and freedoms that others took
for granted.
Race and freedom evolved together.

54.
Race justified social inequalities as natural.
As the race idea evolved, white
superiority became "common sense" in
America. It justified not only slavery but
also the extermination of Indians,
exclusion of Asian immigrants, and the
taking of Mexican lands by a nation
that professed a belief in democracy.
People who are racist tend to make rules and laws that
are racists. So racial practices become institutionalized
within American government, laws, and society.
Racist ideas become “baked” into society.

55.
Race isn’t biological, but racism is still real.
People decide how to categorize and group other
people.
Race is a powerful social idea that gives people
different access to opportunities and resources.
Our government and social institutions have created
advantages that channel wealth, power, and
resources to a certain “race” of people.
This affects everyone, whether we are aware of it or

56.
Colorblindness will not end racism.
Pretending race doesn’t exist is not the same as
creating equality.
Race is more than stereotypes and individual
prejudice.
To combat racism, we need to identify and remedy
social policies and institutional practices that
advantage some groups at the expense of others